Female police lieutenant Phoebe McNamara is a success as a hostage negotiator. She and their toddler daughter Carly live with her devoted, but agoraphobic mother, Essie. Disagreement of policy implementation by a uniformed cop during a hostage negotiation, leads to a grim feud with one of them, cocky Arnie Meeks. Captain David McVee and businessman-philanthropist Duncan Swift, her patient new boy friend, side with her and the assumption Meeks is behind a violence wave targeting her, but that proves dead-wrong.